1 X GTX 580 or 2 X 6950?

Grandpa Munster · 9 Jul 2011 at 20:38

My mobo supports ATI Crossfire so I could get 2 ATI Radeon 6950, but have read on here some people having issues.

Or, do I get a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 580?

Both options roughly the same sort of price, which way do I go?

Duff-Man · 9 Jul 2011 at 20:46

What resolution is your screen?

Assuming you're going to be gaming at or above 1920*1080, it would be worth going for more than 1Gb of frame buffer. So, if you go the 6950 x-fire route, I'd suggest looking at the 2Gb models.

rankftw · 9 Jul 2011 at 21:57

Personally I would go for the 580 then if at some point down the line you want more power pick another one up.

Surveyor · 9 Jul 2011 at 21:59

rankftw said:
Personally I would go for the 580 then if at some point down the line you want more power pick another one up.

A possibility if the OP's motherboard supports SLI.

Jordan97 · 9 Jul 2011 at 23:25

Grandpa Munster said:
My mobo supports ATI Crossfire so I could get 2 ATI Radeon 6950, but have read on here some people having issues.

Or, do I get a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 580?

Both options roughly the same sort of price, which way do I go?

What motherboard do you have?

Freddie1980 · 9 Jul 2011 at 23:54

If you can afford 2x 6950's in crossfire then get them now don't bother buying one card then waiting for the price to come down latter on and then sticking another one in for SLI it's just not worth it IMO especailly given the power consumption on those 580's. By the time you do get around to upgrading you would most likely want a 6 series or the AMD equivalent instead.

Cleeecooo · 10 Jul 2011 at 00:06

6950 anyday. Sure there will be some problems with drivers blah blah blah but the 580 is a rip off at it's current price and 6950 xfire is pretty much unbeaten. It's like asking 580 or 6990. Many will argue that the single card is always better but when the 6950s are so much more powerful for just a but more there really is no question about it.

harmony · 10 Jul 2011 at 08:08

6950 2GB x 2

=VTA=MANFACE · 10 Jul 2011 at 10:35

rankftw said:
Personally I would go for the 580 then if at some point down the line you want more power pick another one up.

Your joking ?
Go Xfire with the same card.

Randomface74 · 10 Jul 2011 at 10:40

There are more driver problems with multiple cards than single cards. For that reason I'd say go with the single card.

I've personally had a bunch of issues with ATI Catalyst, and the forum is full of people who also have problems. For that reason I'd say go with Nvidia.

Whether you actually need a 580, or will be fine with a 570, I'll leave that to your own judgement.

pgi947 · 10 Jul 2011 at 12:00

Another vote for 6950 2gb cards, though I would advise to cough up the extra £15 per card and get a non-reference cooler design, such as the MSI twin frozr series. My xfx 6950's get pretty damn loud above 65% fan usage.

As for drivers, I would say it depends on what you play/plan on playing, I've had a few issues with some games, but the majority have been fine

Mojo · 10 Jul 2011 at 14:21

go for xfire 6950s. A lot faster than a 580, and more than enough power to keep you going for a long while, not to mention the 2gb of Vram.

I can't really talk about driver problems as I've had problems from both green and red cards, but then again the AMD problems are due to a dying card

Steves1982 · 10 Jul 2011 at 17:47

+1 for 6950s. Been well chuffed with mine so far and haven't had any drivers issues of note.

postmanfw · 10 Jul 2011 at 19:28

+1 for the 6950s

Though if only at 1080p it will be overkill....but thats always nice

IronWarrior · 10 Jul 2011 at 23:14

Go for the 6950/70's.

Marine-RX179 · 10 Jul 2011 at 23:54

GTX580 for 1920 res:
i) more than sufficient speed and without potential multi-GPU related problems.
ii) around £70-£110 cheaper
iii) Crossfire 6950 is overkill for 1920 res (unless people want to spend hundreds of £ for Metro2033 alone)- games in general 60fps vs 90fps makes no different on a monitor that only does 60fps max

Crossfire 6950 2GB for 2560 res or 3 monitors:
GTX580 lack both the grunt and VRAM for these high res.

harmony · 11 Jul 2011 at 00:37

Marine-RX179 said:
unless people want to spend hundreds of £ for Metro2033 alone

While you only think about Metro 2033, there are games like Shogun 2, The Witcher 2 etc which can easily pwn a single GTX580 without doubt. Even Dragon Age 2 with High Res Texture or Crysis 2 DX11 with High Res Texture may be a pain for a single GTX580.

Marine-RX179 · 11 Jul 2011 at 01:54

harmony said:
While you only think about Metro 2033, there are games like Shogun 2, The Witcher 2 etc which can easily pwn a single GTX580 without doubt.

Pwn?
Seem perfectly playable to me:
Shogun 2: Total War - DirectX 11:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...-graphics-card-review-shogun-2-total-war.html

Crysis 2 - DirectX 11
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...0-platinum-graphics-card-review-crysis-2.html

Dragon Age 2 - DirectX 11
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...atinum-graphics-card-review-dragon-age-2.html

DA2 is a bad example, as it is known to be poorly optimised for Nvidia cards, and still going through fixing with drivers. But even with that, looking at that result it would indicated that while the GTX580 at stock would struggle a bit to do 8XAA at 1920 res, with overclocking and dropping the AA down to 4xAA and it would deliver playable frame rate with minimum above 30fps instead of 26fps.

Witcher II:
http://www.benchmarkextreme.com/Articles/The Witcher 2 Performance Review/P3.html
Stock speed GTX580 average at around 55fps on Ultra.

postmanfw · 11 Jul 2011 at 02:25

Doesnt matter what monitor can do as 160fps def feels a lot better than 60 or 90 fps in a fps like black ops

harmony · 11 Jul 2011 at 07:15

Marine-RX179 said:
Pwn?
Seem perfectly playable to me:
Shogun 2: Total War - DirectX 11:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...-graphics-card-review-shogun-2-total-war.html

Crysis 2 - DirectX 11
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...0-platinum-graphics-card-review-crysis-2.html

Dragon Age 2 - DirectX 11
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...atinum-graphics-card-review-dragon-age-2.html

DA2 is a bad example, as it is known to be poorly optimised for Nvidia cards, and still going through fixing with drivers. But even with that, looking at that result it would indicated that while the GTX580 at stock would struggle a bit to do 8XAA at 1920 res, with overclocking and dropping the AA down to 4xAA and it would deliver playable frame rate with minimum above 30fps instead of 26fps.

Witcher II:
http://www.benchmarkextreme.com/Articles/The Witcher 2 Performance Review/P3.html
Stock speed GTX580 average at around 55fps on Ultra.

Again, you have never played these games at max settings yourself, and you are quoting irrelevant results from reviews.